This invention relates to a game machine, and more particularly to a Mahjong game machine.
Mahjong is a classic game that has its origin in China and has been widely spread to more than 300 million people over the world including China, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, the United States of America, Europe, etc. A Mahjong set includes a set of tiles, a pair of dice for deciding seats of players, a quantity of sticks used for scorekeeping, and a table used to keep the tiles upright and to keep their faces hidden from other players.
In general, Mahjong is a game in which four players compete to win by completion a valuable hand by picking up a tile from the wall and performing one of the post-pick-up actions (WIN, KONG, REACH, DISCARD), and performing one of the response actions (WIN, PONG, KONG, CHEE) for a tile discarded by other player. The essence of playing Mahjong is to complete a player""s hand as soon as possible by making a series of good actions (decisions).
However, in the real Mahjong game, it is accompanied with processes requiring excessive time and labor such as the processes of mixing, distributing, and arranging tiles, and a process of calculating scores, etc., in addition to the essential activities.
Although the Mahjong game is becoming increasingly wide-spread as a tool for leisure as well as one of mind exercise due to its unique amusement and depth, such annoying processes have become significant factors discouraging the general public from learning the Mahjong game, and give an inconvenience to the Mahjong expert. Furthermore, in an actual Mahjong game, conduct unbecoming to a gentleman such as a pre-picking up of tiles, a substituting of tiles etc., may often cause troubles among players.
Considering these characteristics of the Mahjong game, a mechanized Mahjong table, which enables the mixing of tiles and building of a wall mechanically to eliminate an inconvenience of having to mix the tiles and build the wall from the tiles, has been developed. In addition, Mahjong is also programmed partly owing to the development of a variety of computer games so that it becomes possible to play the Mahjong game of an elementary level through video game machines or personal computers.
However, although the above mentioned mechanized Mahjong table can resolve the inconvenience of having to mix the tiles and build the wall, still a process of distributing and arranging the tiles, and a complex scoring process must be performed. Therefore the Mahjong game using the mechanized Mahjong table has limitations in that it is accompanied with processes requiring time and labor, and still may cause troubles due to the conduct unbecoming to a gentleman during the play of the Mahjong game.
Further, for the latter Mahjong computer program, a level of intelligence is very low, and there is no concept of controlling the time for each play of the game. Consequently, it cannot implement an actual play of the game among players, thereby not attracting an interest from Mahjong lovers.
Although a traditional Mahjong game does not stipulate clearly the time required for a player to perform each play of the game, basically a player is urged to perform a corresponding action without a delay of time. In fact, the game of Mahjong practically progresses in such a manner. Therefore, other players always reproach a player who delays a progress of the game severely for the delay. It should be noticed that the China Mahjong game rule published (July, 1998) by the China National Sports Bureau stipulates time limits for each play of the game.
However, there is no such time controlling concept in a conventional Mahjong game for use in personal computers and video game machines. That is, the conventional computer Mahjong game allows a human player to perform an act without any time limit after the pick-up of a tile. In the mean time, it does not provide the human player with the time for determining whether or not to perform a response act (for example, WIN, PONG, KONG, CHEE) for a tile discarded by any other player. Instead, the microprocessor (computer) determines that the human player may perform one of the response acts, and thus stops the progress of the game to prompt the human player to perform an act. Once the game is stopped, the human player can delay time without limit.
In other words, the conventional computer Mahjong game does not control the times required for the human player to perform each play of the game. Also, although decision on whether or not to perform a response act is a critical decision which the human player should make himself, the conventional computer Mahjong game does not give the time required for the human player to determine whether or not to perform a response act. This never occurs in an actual Mahjong game, but all the conventional computer Mahjong games employ such a method, which results in the implementation of a very impractical Mahjong game. Therefore, it is clear that the conventional computer Mahjong game functions as only for amusement, and cannot realize a game for an actual contest.
Accordingly, the present inventor had developed an artificial intelligent computer Mahjong game by which all the rules and options of the Mahjong different by regions can be designated, by which the time required for a player to perform each play of the game can be set and controlled, by which levels for the cyber (computer) players can be selected diversely and freely from the first grade for beginners to the ninth grade equal to a level of world Mahjong champion, by which an actual Mahjong game can be implemented very realistically, and which can be installed and used in conventional personal computers and video game machines.
However, since the intelligent Mahjong game developed by the present inventor is basically operated through personal computers or video game machines, it has a limitation in that it cannot realize a traditional Mahjong game which four players play face-to-face.
An example of a Mahjong game machine is the Japanese patent laid open publication No. Heisei 8-243258 (published on Sep. 24, 1996) disclosing a game machine using a TV screen. The game machine of the Japanese patent publication is a TV game machine including a game machine body, four first display devices (pads for the TV game machine) adapted to display tiles in the hand and having buttons, and a second display device or TV CRT connected to the game machine body.
For the TV game machine, players are positioned apart from each other in front of a TV set so that tiles in their hands are not exposed to other players, and play the game watching the TV screen (CRT) with the first display device being held in their hands. Therefore the TV game machine can only be a game machine for amusements, differing greatly from a traditional Mahjong game in which four players who sit face-to-face with each other in four directions of the table perform a play viewing down tiles in their hands and tiles discarded by any other players.
Therefore, the present inventor has studied a Mahjong game machine which is easy to carry, in which annoying processes consuming time and labor such as processes of mixing, distributing and arranging tiles, and a process of calculating scores are performed automatically, in which the time required for a player to perform each play of the game is set and controlled, in which conducts unbecoming to a gentleman are basically prevented, and thus players can concentrate on the decision-makings while realizing the substantially same situation as in the traditional Mahjong game.
The primary object of the present invention is to provide a Mahjong game machine by which a player can play conveniently and efficiently the Mahjong game in the same manner as a traditional Mahjong game thereby enabling a realistic Mahjong contest.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a Mahjong game machine in which diverse rules and options can be selected, in which levels for the cyber (computer) players can be selected diversely and freely from the first grade to the ninth grade, and in which the time required for a player to perform each play of the game can be set and controlled.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a Mahjong game machine that is easy to carry and movable.
In the preferred embodiments, a Mahjong game machine comprises a body having a main display to be placed in the middle of a Mahjong table, and four player pads to be placed on the edges of the table.
The body includes a microprocessor for executing the Mahjong game program, and a main display for displaying a series of contents associated with a progress of the game.
The player pad, which has an L-shaped section, includes a vertical portion and a horizontal portion.
The vertical portion of the player pad includes a hand display (for example, LCD) for displaying tiles in the hands of players, and a menu display section for sequentially displaying a series of corresponding acts that players should perform according to the progress of the game.
The horizontal portion includes a button section for inputting a series of corresponding acts displayed on the menu display section.
The hand display is located on the vertical portion of the L-shaped player pad so that tiles in each player""s hand are not exposed to any other players.
The menu display section is located at the right side of hand display placed on the vertical portion of the L-shaped player pad to sequentially display a series of corresponding acts that players should perform according to the progress of the game.
The button section for inputting the series of corresponding acts associated with the progress of the game displayed on the menu display section is located on the horizontal portion of the L-shaped player pad.
Preferably, the Mahjong game program allows the time required for a human player to perform each act of the game to be set and controlled, thereby implementing a realistic Mahjong game.